Carrot Blueberry Oat Muffins

Confession: I love carbs. I do. I can’t help it.

Confession: I love fruit smoothies. Again, I can’t help it.

Confession: I LOVE having a smoothie with toast, muffins, bagels. And so do my girls.

So as I sat evaluating our carb/fructose intake one day, I thought I had to find a way to make our indulgences better for our bodies without sacrificing what we love: carbs and smoothies. I know my improvements on our old favorites isn’t as dramatic as it could have been but I still can’t love green smoothies and I’m not that into many of the health foods that would make the muffins extremely healthy yet inedible.

I whipped together some carrot juice/puree (boil a bunch of carrots, drain reserving the liquid, blend the carrots with some of the liquid, strain to separate puree from juice), and added the juice to our smoothie and the puree to our muffins. Then I substituted some of the flour for oats to get extra whole grains in. The result was delicious! A few days later, I added zucchini puree to the carrots and it was extra yummy. You can play with this basic recipe and do all sorts of things to it, adding whatever you want to make it yours.

CARROT BLUEBERRY OAT MUFFINS

1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup ground oats
1 Tbs baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup carrot puree
1/2 cup milk
¼ cup oil
½ cup wild blueberries

Combine dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients, except blueberries. Pour wets onto drys and mix until combined. Fold in blueberries. Scoop into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350°F for 22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 large muffins.

(Batter should be thick. If it is too thin, add additional flour ¼ cup at a time to reach desired thickness.)